Link to Digital Photobook
Here is a link to a digital version of my photobook.
I think that this project and the final pieces I got out of it are a good note to end my coursework on. This project has shown me ways in which I have improved as a photographer since my first few projects on the course, such as the Hamptonne and Identity projects, I feel like my photographs now are of a much higher quality than they were then, due to my improved knowledge on camera handling/techniques as well as a refined aesthetic style. I have also learned new skills and explored new techniques on this project, such as night photography. In particular, I think the best part of this project was experimenting with night photography; it was a completely new way of taking photographs and using coloured gels and artificial lighting to light up the scene I photographed worked well with my interests (this and previous projects makes it quite clear that colour is one of my main focuses when it comes to photography). I also enjoyed constructing the photobook, I had some experience with zines in the past having made two previously, but this gave me the freedom to use as many images as was reasonable.
What went well:
To me, I think my photobook was a success, I was able to create intriguing page spreads which (most of them) have a connection to another page spread elsewhere, making the whole thing feel connected together. I feel like my night photoshoot was successful in the end, despite the first shoot not going as planned, I feel like the way I was able to learn from my mistakes and make even better images, which only made me enjoy the outcomes from that specific shoot even more.
How I can improve:
In terms of how I can improve to prepare for the final project, I feel like I could improve on how I plan photoshoots that link with the concepts that I have on the project better, I don’t feel like I did a particularly bad job at planning in this project, but I can always improve it to make better links within the project as well as the final piece.
Comparison to my other project:
It would be worthwhile comparing this project to my previous Anthropocene project, as it has a very similar theme to this current one, as well as the fact that the final outcomes are fairly similar aesthetically (and thematically as a result of the similar prompts). I think this project has a greater variety of the types of images I took than the Anthropocene project, in this project I was able to capture natural and urban landscapes, still life/object and night photographs, as such my final pieces and photobook are more interesting in that regard. I also feel like my images from these shoots, after looking back on the Anthropocene project (which I consider to be one of my strongest), were of a higher quality, I felt like the framing in particular gave my images a more professional look.
Here you can see the similarities between the two final images, in this project I wasn’t as focussed on the colour of the image, but it does have a lot more colour than the original image.